Love Never Dies
by MEOWSalot
Summary: Once you fall for someone, no matter what, it will never go away. DracoxAstoria Rated M for later chapters and themes.
1. Prologue

Prologue

_1993_

"Astoria!"

Astoria Greengrass groaned as she got dragged from her seat at the Ravenclaw table by her older sister Daphne. "Yes sis? And I'm pretty sure I can follow you without you dragging me."

"Yeah well, better I have a hold on you so you won't escape." Daphne said as she forced her to sit down at the Slytherin table.

"I really probably shouldn't be here." Astoria said as she found the nearby Slytherins staring at her. She stared them down. "I'm also a pureblood. Most of you have gone to the little brunches and soirees that my family has hosted so please stop staring at me." She spat out.

Daphne shook her head. "How you got into Ravenclaw, I really don't know."

"Maybe it's because she was sitting and talking with that mudblood on the train." A voice rang out.

Astoria looked at the direction of the voice and found herself looking at Draco Malfoy, someone she knew from her sisters stories as someone who filled the description of a Slytherin perfectly. "If you're talking about Ashlyn, she may be a mudblood but I'd rather spend time with her than….a guy with two trolls." She said wearily at the sight of Crabbe and Goyle. Then she got up. "Anyway, I should probably be at my table. Bye Daphne." She said as she kissed her sister on the cheek.

_1996 _

It was during the latter half of her third year at Hogwarts when Astoria encountered Malfoy again.

"Still hanging out with mudbloods Greengrass. What a disgrace you are to purebloods." He had said as he passed by her and Ashlyn Smith, a fellow Ravenclaw and her best friend.

"And you're still hanging out with trolls…although now there's a new troll. A female one." She answered back without turning to look at him.

"Astoria.." Ashlyn muttered as she saw them stop and look at her.

"Oh don't worry. He's all bark and no bite." Astoria whispered back before sighing and turning just in time to see Pansy Parkinson grab her wand. "Are you going to use that on me?" She asked in a bored voice.

"Of course she's not." Malfoy said making Pansy reluctantly put her wand down. "Let's see….. 50 points from Ravenclaw for answering back. 30 points for calling three members of the Inquisitorial Squad 'trolls'. 20 points cuz she's a mudblood. And another ten points from Ravenclaw because…this is a big waste of time."

Astoria seethed as they walked away. "I am going to kill him. I swear I will."

Ashlyn looked at her. "He'll probably dock a hundred points as his final words."

Astoria laughed. Then she turned serious as the entered the History of Magic classroom.

"He thinks too highly of himself." Astoria whispered as the lecture began.

"What do you mean?"

"He's the so-called 'Prince of Slytherin', walking around as if he owns the place. What better way than to make him regret docking points for no reason, bullying for no reason and everything else he's done to anybody who's not in Slytherin than to challenge his 'princeship'?" Astoria said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"And who would challenge him?" Ashlyn asked.

"It has to be a pureblood that Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Hupplepuff will have no problems with. A pureblood because that's the only blood status a Malfoy will take seriously. Believe me, the whole Malfoy family has, at one point of time, been our guests." She sighed.

"Then I guess you'll be doing it?" Ashlyn asked.

"Of course not." Astoria said. "Too much work, being an H.B.I.C."

"Yeah but….you know him. You're a pureblood AND you are in Ravenclaw."

"I do not want-"

"And your family is one of the most esteemed pureblood families…. I mean, you're father took over the position of Crouch didn't he?"

"Yeah but.."

"And, although you won't admit it, you're pretty good with the curses and hexes."

Astoria looked at her blankly. "You're really not going to stop until I say yea, aren't you?"

"Uh huh."

Astoria rolled her eyes. "Fine. But you're helping me."

Ashlyn grinned. "Where do we start?"

Astoria sighed. "By getting two trolls like he has..except they shouldn't look like trolls."


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

_September 1997_

Astoria smiled to herself as she Side-Apparated with her mother to Platform 9 3/4. After she and her sister gave their mother a quick kiss on the cheek and a hug good bye, they got inside Hogwarts Express and went their separate ways.

"Hey Asti." Ashlyn greeted as Astoria entered the compartment. Then she saw two girls behind her. "Who are…those?"

Astoria sat down, smiling. "The blondie is Briana Wilson, 4th year like us, except she's in Gryffindor. The brunette is also in 4th year, but in Hupplepuff. Tara Brown." She leaned in closer to whisper in Ashlyns ear. "My own version of trolls."

"Where did you find them?" Ashlyn whispered as the two newcomers sat down.

"Some of the pureblood daughters my mother always invites to her events. We're not really close, but close enough to know they don't really believe in that 'purebloods should rule' crap that those Death Eaters are always going on about…must be why my mother likes them."

Ashlyn grinned. "Oh yea. Your father was in Gryffindor, right?"

"And my mommy is a proud Hupplepuff. My sister is the first Slytherin in recent generations. But we still love her." Astoria said, shrugging as she opened her trunk. The groaned. "The house elf switched our robes again." She said, holding up some black robes with the Slytherin patch instead of Ravenclaw. She sighed. "Must have been in a hurry again." She muttered as she stood up.

"You going to bring it back to her?" Ashlyn asked.

"But of course. Chances are she has my robes."

"That means going into the lions den. You know how the Slytherins sit together by year level."

Astoria caught the glint in Ashlyn's eyes. "I'll be back. And no," She started as the other two began to get up. "Don't follow me. You three go and bond."

Ashlyn shrugged. "You heard her. Let's bond." She smiled brightly at Tara and Briana. "Weird how your names rhyme."

"Cousins." Tara explained.

"Our mothers are siblings." Briana continued.

"And our mothers are also the cousin of Astoria's father." Tara added on.

"Oh wow. You guys finish each others sentences…what joy." Ashlyn muttered under her breath.

"What?"

"You were saying something?"

Ashlyn smiled. "Oh no. Just thinking to myself. By the way, are there any plans in the works on how to get Asti to become H.B.I.C.?"

While the three of them got acquainted and discussed the plans, which weren't really plans, Astoria walked down the train, greeting some people she knew as she went towards the Slytherin 6th years carriage.

She stopped at the door and composed herself. Then she stepped in and tried to be as quiet as possible as she tried to locate her sister.

"Greengrass, what are you doing here?"

Astoria groaned inwardly as she turned and saw Draco Malfoy, head on Pansy's lap. "Nothing you should care about."

Malfoy just cocked and eyebrow and then gestured to the door. "If that's the case, you might as well leave now."

Astoria gave a mock sigh. "Fine. If you must know, I'm looking for my sister."

"She's looking for you. Something about robes." Pansy intervened. "So might as well go look for her elsewhere."

Astoria shrugged, knowing when she had no more reason to be there. "Fine. I'll just leave them here just in case."

With that, she dumped the robes on top of Pansy's head as she walked out.

She was still smiling when she got back to her own compartment.

"Back so soon?" Ashlyn said as Astoria sat down. She gestured to some robes. "Your sister got these sent to you. Some snotty second year Slytherin got sent to do it."

Astoria pursed her lips. "She probably won't like what I did to her robes."

"What?"

"Dumped them on Pansy's head. The hem fell on Malfoy's face if I'm not mistaken."

Ashlyn shook her head as Astoria's Russian Blue cat, Minya, climbed onto her lap. She reached down to stroke the cat. "We have a long year ahead of us Minya."

Astoria turned to her side. Then turned again to the other side. Then groaned and sat up. She opened the curtains of the four poster bed she occupied in Ravenclaw Tower. "Ash?"

A groan answered back and she sighed, knowing that Ashlyn was deep asleep. She shook her head as she put her robe on before heading down to the common room, finding Luna Lovegood sitting by the fireplace, staring intently into it.

"Hey Luna, why are you still up?"

"Couldn't sleep. You?"

"Same."

A comfortable silence settled between them as Luna continued staring into the fire and Astoria settled down with a book to read. Ten minutes later, she put it down. "I think I'll go down to the kitchen and get some hot chocolate, want to come with me?"

Luna shook her head. "Two Horned Fire Gnomes are known to roam the corridors of castles this hour you know. Best to stay somewhere safe, like our dorms. That's why Hogwarts is so strict about curfew. Wouldn't want to explain to parents that their child died because a Two Horned Fire Gnome attacked them, would they?"

Astoria blinked. "Uhm….okay. Whatever you say Luna."

Luna smiled. "But I'll let you in on a secret my father recently found out."

"What?"

"To defeat the gnomes, all you have to do is a simple confunding charm and they'll go the other way. So be sure to have your wand with you. And a cat also scares them off."

Astoria just nodded. "My wand is with me. Tell you what, I'll bring my cat too." She gestured to Minya who was following her.

"You should be safe now."

Astoria shook her head as she exited the common room and went down the stairs.

She stopped when she saw, on her way downstairs, Draco Malfoy along the seventh floor. Which she found weird since she knew from Daphne's stories that Slytherin was located in the dungeons and part of the common room under the lake.

She looked at the cat she was holding and held a finger up to her lips, gesturing her cat to be quiet as she followed Malfoy. She knelt to the ground and saw from her hiding spot in the corner of the hallway, Draco Malfoy pacing back and forth.

"Miss Greengrass?"

Her eyes went wide and she bit her lip as she got up and turned around. "Uhm….good evening Professor McGonagall."

"May I know why you're roaming the halls this late at night?"

"Uhm…hunting for Two horned Fire Gnomes?"

"There is no such thing. I would have expected something like that from Miss Lovegood but-"

"Oh alright professor. My cat. She sneaked off." She held the cat up.

"Meow."

McGonagall looked at both cat and master. "Detention. We'll discuss it with Professor Flitwick tomorrow. Now go up to your room."

"Yes professor." As Astoria walked back to the stairs, she stole a quick glance at the spot Malfoy was pacing at earlier, finding him gone.


End file.
